The Walking Dead All Out War Leaves Readers Disappointed

I am a diehard Walking Dead fan. I love the TV spinoff show and I love the comics. In fact, I have religiously read all 128 black-and-white comics to date. The series has given us cannibals, The Governor, hordes of zombies, romance, and every kind of interesting character imaginable. Rick Grimes, a simple country cop, and his son, Carl, have gone from naive country bumpkins to hardcore heroes who have proven over and over that they will do what it takes to survive on both a personal level, but also to protect the communities they have fostered.

After the death of the Governor, fans of the series were craving a new villain to hate. Enter Negan. Robert Kirkland, the creator of The Walking Dead, promised us not just one issue a month, but two. Fans were in heaven. In issue 100, Negan killed off one of our favorite heroes, Glenn. We knew an all out war was brewing, but the ending left us disappointed. Rick tricks Negan by attempting to sell him on the notion of peace while they are in the middle of a one-on-one. Rick slits Negan’s throat and gets everyone to back down. But rather than kill him, he holds him hostage. Seriously? He killed Glenn, he killed many other people in Rick’s community. So, you’re going to leave him chained to a cell where he can plot escape, revenge, and allow your son Carl to be influenced by this sick and violent person?

I can see if Rick wants to make Negan suffer. So, infect him with his own poisoned weapons, turn him into a walker, and display him to everyone in their settlement. Or keep him as a prisoner and make him fight off zombies for amusement. Give him some kind of punishment or put him out of his misery, but don’t keep him locked up near your children and your ammunition. Besides, he wasn’t even a really interesting villain anyway, especially after we had the Governor.

And now Kirkman has fast forwarded to an undetermined time in the future where the entire community has become agrarian and Rick and Carl have had makeovers. And they take in some new people who obviously not only don’t trust them, but intend to snoop around. Of course we know where this is headed: they will discover Negan, he will convince them to either kill Rick or release him or both, and there will be another war or Rick, Michonne, Andrea, and Carl will once again hit the open road. Kirkman said he needed to do something different. Well, the zoo keeper character and his trusty tiger were epic, but then Kirkman went and killed the tiger off by a horde of hungry zombies. How lame was that? I’ll continue to read the comic, but if it doesn’t shape up, I’m going to finally move on to something else.

– Des Manttari, Editor-in-Chief, Phoenix Genesis

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